Fish Haul Beach-Port Royal Sound-Hilton Head Island
A perfect way to start the day is by taking a relaxing walk on the beach. Getting out before the weekend visitors arrive and the sun gets too high in the sky helps with my amateur photography skills. I can set the camera on “auto” and let it do the work.
I’ve talked about Fish Haul before because it is one of my favorite beaches to find all sorts of shells and sea creatures that wash ashore. It is on the Port Royal Sound and when the tide is low you can walk out a long way, unlike the beaches close by on the Atlantic Ocean.
And when the tide is high, and the winds are right, the cannonballs find themselves laying out to dry at the tide line.
These blobs are mostly harmless to humans. They sting if you step into them. They die quickly after washing up, but can still sting and inject venom after death.
“Lacking a brain, jellyfish instead have an elementary nerve net capable of detecting light, odor, and other stimuli and coordinating the animal’s responses.
The severity of the sting depends on the species of jellyfish, the penetrating power of the nematocyst, the thickness of the victim’s skin, the sensitivity of the victim to the venom. The majority of stings from jellyfish occur in tropical and warm waters. Most jellyfish along the South Carolina coast inflict only mild stings that result in minor discomfort.“
To read more click here to visit the Department of Natural Resourced-South Carolina
Here is a closer look at the cannonball or sometimes called the cabbage head jellyfish:
Also, use caution when wading through or fishing in the tidal creeks. They find their way into the warm waters.
Although it looks like they make a mess of the beach, they are mostly water so they evaporate and just about disappear.
In some places these interesting creatures that many sea animals feed on are also considered a delicacy to some folks.
Not for me…..I’ll just keep walking over them and hope they survive until the tide takes them back out to sea.